Study: Individuals with MDD and bipolar disorder may struggle with emotion regulation

People who buy Seroquel and other medications for mental conditions like major depressive disorder (MDD) and bipolar disorder may have a more difficult time with adaptive emotion regulation strategies, according to new research.

People who buy Seroquel and other medications for mental conditions like major depressive disorder (MDD) and bipolar disorder may have a more difficult time with adaptive emotion regulation strategies, according to new research.

The study, which was led by Larissa Wolkenstein from the University of Tubingen in Germany, looked at emotion strategies for symptoms of these disorders in 42 euthymic patients with bipolar disorder, 43 participants with a history of MDD and 39 healthy individuals.The researchers used the Cognitive Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (CERQ) to see if there were any patterns in maladaptive or adaptive emotion regulation strategies. These findings were published in the Journal of Affective Disorders.

What they discovered was that bipolar and MDD patients had an increased likelihood for significant levels of rumination (focusing on the symptoms of their conditions), catastrophizing (having irrational thoughts that something is worse than it actually is) and self-blame when compared to the healthy group.

The scientists used the CERQ scores and found that the average levels for rumination were 11.36 for the bipolar group, 12.16 for individuals with MDD and just 7.21 for the healthy controls. Scores for catastrophizing were 8.14, 7.24 and 5.24, respectively. As for the coping strategy self-blame, the levels were 10.81, 10.93 and 7.53. This means that many MDD or bipolar patients who take Canadian drugs for their illnesses may have difficulty controlling positive appraisal struggle with putting things into perspective.

"[T]his is the first study to demonstrate that neither increased use of rumination and catastrophizing nor decreased use of putting into perspective are specific to [bipolar disorder] or MDD, but rather seem to reflect a general marker of vulnerability to affective disorders," the researchers said, according to medwireNews.

After analyzing the data, the scientists determined that in those who were bipolar, symptoms were positively associated with blaming others, and negatively associated with acceptance. Patterns noted in the study were evident even during remission, so this could mean that individuals with these mental conditions could develop affective episodes in the future. However, further tests are needed to fully understand what types of treatments, such as Seroquel, may work best with these complications.

"Furthermore, we need to examine whether ER deficits are specifically characteristic for remitted affective disorders or whether they characterize individuals with any lifetime psychiatric diagnosis." the researchers said.